Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: EcurieEcosse on Tuesday,February 06, 2018, 09:43:13 AM
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Hi out there
I'm a new member from Norway - with a (long) project period in front of me getting a TCS back on the road (and track?)
I've been into motors (cars and MCs and interested in boats and planes as well) for as long as I can remember.
The general interest sliding more and more towards sports cars.
After a stint with an Opel Ascona A SR, a Vauxhall Magnum I bought a project Alfetta GTV that was rebuilt and then used for several yars. Wanted a GRP car to be more safe from tin worm and my systematic shortlist read as follows:
* Marcos GT
* Lotus Europa
* Ginetta G4
* Elva 2000 BMW
* de Tomaso Vallelunga
* Alpine A110
By coincidense I ended up with a EcurieEcosse racing blue Marcos 2 litre V4 that's been part of the family since 1997.
Later I bought an S2 Esprit project. Since this was just a clean body, with frame and papers it would never become a matching number original. I therefore applied for permission from the authorities to do a "conversion": Front and rear suspension plus brakes from an Esprit S350, six speed transmission from a 2005 Audi A6 2.0 TDI and engine out of a 2006 Chevrolet Impala SS (LS4 alu V8) Due to taking over a property and starting to build a new house with my own hands the Espris is still waiting in the garage but gathering more and more parts around it.
But when I found a Lagoon Blue body and good frame from a Lotus Europa Special I couldn't resist. Missing a few parts, like interior, engine, trans, suspension, steering though :-)
But I'm looking forward to going ahead. Starting to gather parts, and I've got the basis for a twinc build and the five speed trans from a first gen Renault Espace.
I would like to pose a question here though:
On the lotus-europa.com I found a comprehensive list of Europa chassis number, but mine is not there. The webpage seems to have been idle since march 2015 so I'll try a question here:
Does anyone know something about federal chassis no. 2715R ?
From the other numbers on the list I understand it must have been made in september/october 1972 and sold to the US in october. I bought it from a gentleman i Florida last spring but would like to know more about its history.
The Lotus factory / museum was a little bit reluctant about it since the documentation I got with the car is a bit lacking.
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:Welcome: EcurieEcosse!!
It sounds like you have a nice big project ahead of you! Keep in mind that we're happy to try to answer any questions you might have! In return, we like to see pictures! ;D
lotus-europa.com was maintained by a fellow for several years after he had sold all his Europas and unfortunately, the guy who volunteered to continue maintenance doesn't seem to have kept up with it so the registry has not been updated as well. There is still a lot of good information there though. I find the Documentation page very useful. The workshop and parts manuals are searchable, which I think is useful. There are a lot of good information on almost every topic there as well. This forum is much newer but it is collecting a substantial amount of good tech information, too.
Andy Graham is the archivist at Lotus. He will be able to tell you everything Lotus knows about your car. He wants to hear from everybody about their Lotus to fill out their registry so drop him an email at AGraham@lotuscars.com.
Good luck with your project and keep us informed of your progress!
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I have 2963r which was built in December of 1972 and is a TCS with 5 speed. It is also a Florida car and in fact came with the Coolaire “factory” AC. Welcome and have fun!
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Welcome. That’s a nice wish list of cars. The DeTomaso Vallelunga is beautiful car and if I had the money....!
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EcurieEcosse , :Welcome:
We’re here too help , and above all we love pictures. What size home are you looking to build? We have others here who are renovating and building europa’s also.
Welcome again from Sunny Florida
Dakazman
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welcome EcurieEcosse look forward to seeing your postings :lotus:
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Welcome EcurieEcosse! I'm in the Boston area, waiting for the spring thaw to start working on and driving my fed spec TCS. I have always loved the Marcos GT, but have only ever seen one here in the states about 40 years ago. Beautiful cars, like the Europa.
Tom
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:Welcome:
welcome EcurieEcosse!
this is a great place to start!
Mark
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Welcome to the forum. As you can see, it's a friendly and informative place for Europa owners to hang out. That is a nice wish list of plastic cars. If not for the exorbitant prices they command these days, I would surely put an Alpine A110 in the garage next to my Europa Special. It's good to have you aboard. Looking forward to seeing more about your Europa project. Cheers :beerchug:
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I know where there is a nice little cherry red Tesla roadster free for anyone willing to get it. Local pick-up only.
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I know where there is a nice little cherry red Tesla roadster free for anyone willing to get it. Local pick-up only.
Saw it yesterday. Great launch. A little bit of Hethel is in space!
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A friendly welcome in this forum indeed :)
The house I'm building has a footprint of 130 square meters, with the entire first floor plus a cellar of 45 square meters being allocated for garage/workshop use. The living area is the 130 square meters second floor, with a big balcony overlooking a lake and canal.
And as some of you has been suggesting, I soon discovered that my short list of cars were probably on others' list as well, since many of them commanded really large amounts of money - if they were available at all :)
I suspected that the author of the web-site hade lost interest or possibility to follow up, but agree that there is a wealth of information there. For safety I downloaded and saved the registry pages...
I'll try to upload a couple of pictures of my project, at the same time asking you to be patient with my restoration work, as I'll need much time here due to the other commitments.
One of the pictures is of the Europa body under a cover, with the building in the background. And a separate picture of the house building :)
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Wow , huge undertaking on both projects. A renovation is much more difficult than new construction and I have been down that road. It is a beautiful setting from the pics and I hope you a speedy completion. Keep posting 😀
Dakazman
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:Welcome: Great to have another Europa enthusiast on the forum! Lots of help here and great insights. You will be well advised, as I know I have in my own rebuild project. We really like photos so keep us updated on the car and your garage.
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An excellent addition to the forum. It's great to hear garage collections and ambitious restorations. I have a MK1 Cooper S that has never been restored. I love the patina and heritage but also love a concourse restored car. I'm fortunate to have the car I drove to Prom that my dad painted and restored so that too will never see a restoration. What you are embarking on is commendable. It's great to know another Europa will be saved and put to it's proper uses.
Welcome to the forum. I too love to see the pictures!
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Yes welcome on board. While you’re doing your house refurb do a weekly hunt for the parts you need. I’m sure you know but some parts are very rare, gearbox bits and trim parts particularly.
Welcome on board. Look forward to progress reports.
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Still feeling good about this forum :-)
Yes - as someone is suggesting I'll be spending time behind the PC in the evenings looking for parts for the Europa. I've done that for years for the other restoration projects as well. For the Esprit I've been finding out stuff, solutions and the use of non original parts all the time. The latest aquisition for that project was a set of four bespoke brake disks, with AP Racing 320 mm rotors and aluminium center bells with the proper Lotus PCD, inset and center bore, but with standard AP Racing bolt pattern for the rotors. The equivalent Lotus disks have a special to Lotus bolt pattern for the rotor, which means they can charge you 2-3 times the money for new rotors also from AP Racing.
My daily driver is a 21 years old E39 BMW 520i and for the house building I often use a Chevy S10 Blazer that I'm installing front and rear locking differentials on. And since I'm passionate about cars I think that it's better to gather old cars than money in the bank for my pension. The "interest" (added value) is better if you buy wise and the prosess is MUCH more fun :-)
I now have
An E34 BMW 525 iX (4wd) saloon
A Citroën CX Prestige (triple black)
The Esprit and Europa projects
and
The Marcos 2 litre V4 (picture taken on a drive up the Prescott Hill hillclimb course during the 50th anniversary for Marcos in 2009)
And seven motorbikes all in all.
Just ordered a new BMW G310 (commuter bike)
A Yamaha TT600 enduro
A Moto Guzzi 1000 Le Mans
A Yamaha XT600 project
A Honda XR600 cafe racer project
A first year (1994) all original Ducati 916 Spada (monoposto) under restoration
A Moto Guzzi 750 project
A BMW R120RT project (1200 oilhead engine / box in a R100RT chassis)
So it's only natural that my 72 square meters garage is way too small, and why I need a new place to live and tune :-)
Geir
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All those vehicles will definitely be very cramped in 72 square meters. Maybe you can get a lift or two and ease the need for square meters!
Is that frame for the Esprit? You'll want to make that garage very comfortable because you'll be spending a lot of time in it between building the Esprit and Europa as well as maintenance on all the other cars and motorcycles!
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:) The frame with front- and rear suspension is indeed from the Esprit. This is an S2, but I bought the complete front and rear suspension from a burnt out Esprit S350 (V8) and the rear fitted directly - with a welded in anchorage point for the upper arm.
On the front the upper and lower arms fitted, but I had to make (weld) a new point for the front leg of the lower arm. This way I now have an upper arm at the rear (came from Lotus in the S3) and outboard brakes (came in the S4). The inboard brakes give less unsprung weight but also a lot of "hazzle" with less choice regarding parts and maintenance.
The 72 square meters is todays garage. The new one will be 130 + 45, and I allready have a stage 2 planned - with a separate parking garage for "ready" vehicles.
And I haven't mentioned my two tractors :) - one with a back hoe as an important element of the building work, and one International Harvester for snow plowing and general maintenance on the new property. And a couple of trailers and a caravan ;)
All this needs parking space under a roof.
But the workshop is the "heart" of the new place and to me restoration and tinkering with special vehicles is kind of a recreation - it gives energy.
G
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Marcos 8). Always liked the shape cool car.